"Extreme Brownies" by Connie Weis - Birthday treats!

Date I made this recipe:  October 19, 2016 – Happy Belted Birthday to me – dessert!

Extreme Brownies – 50 recipes for the most over-the-top treats ever by Connie Weis

Published by Andrews McMeel Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-4494-5032-8; copyright 2014

Purchased at Barnes and Noble

Recipe:  Holy Heavenly Hash Brownies – p. 37-38

My birthday was a few weeks ago but I didn't really get my birthday cake.  Oh sure, I had cake and ice cream for dessert at Spoon and Stable, but it wasn't really "birthday cake" birthday cake which is to say it didn't have frosting.  It was "fancy" cake  - a lovely honey cake with sweetened condensed milk ice cream and caramel and...stuff.  It was the type of dessert for which restaurant pastry chefs win James Beard Awards. The presentation was spectacular, it tasted divine, but it wasn't "cake" cake.

When it comes to cake, it seems to me that people are either "cake" people or "frosting" people, but not normally both.  I am a frosting person.  Final answer. Cake is okay (my husband likes cake) but I am all about the frosting.  ALL about.  The more the better!  My favorite is Seven-Minute Frosting, a frosting my mother favored for the angel food cakes she made for all of us for our birthdays, but it would have been unseemly for me to make and then eat an entire bowl of it, wouldn't it?

So, I punted.  Instead of making or buying a cake, I, for the first time ever, had birthday brownies.

I love brownies.  I love brownies better than cake.  Maybe it's because brownies are a lot more dense and the flavor stands out more.  Or maybe it's because brownies are portable:  I cannot tell you how many times I stuff a cling-wrapped brownie into my purse for "sustenance."  (Cookies get the same treatment).  Cake is much harder to transport and of course, frosting, nearly impossible!

And folks, were these brownies ever good.  Really good. Plus, and I am chuffed to say this, my brownie looked exactly like the brownie featured on the cookbook cover – exactly!  That almost never happens.

But I have to tell you, I am not sure I can take credit for this success because it was a matter of following directions. Granted, there are many steps involved in making these but I was patient and I also made them over the course of two days.  I started the brownie layer one night but then ran out of time to do justice to the other layers so I started anew the next afternoon.  Sometimes taking a leisurely approach has its benefits.

Since my cookbook collection is ever-growing, I often box up and store cookbooks once I have used them but not this time around.  This time around, there's potential for reuse because of all the scrumptious recipes found in this book, of which today's featured brownie is one of them. 

And I'll just say that if you cannot find a brownie to suit in this book, it's because you are not looking hard enough.  There are "chip" brownies, fruit brownies (like raspberry), coffee brownies, mint brownies (ew), candy brownies and cordial brownies.  And then there are blondie brownies with all kinds of flavors and toppings, such as apple walnut and lemon coconut and even fruitcake blondies.  I love both kinds of brownies but I had to go with chocolate and happily, there are several other delicious chocolate brownie recipes that I might have to double back and try.

So.  Things to know about this recipe for Holy Heavenly Hash Brownies are that you'll use several kinds of chocolate and chocolate chips (bring it on!) and also a small amount of chocolate extract.  Let's discuss this last ingredient.

I tried to find chocolate extract before I made these brownies, but after trips to three different grocery stores (a few that were upscale), I didn't find it and wanted to get these brownies baked before I aged another year.  It would figure then, that about a week after I made them (and we inhaled them), I stopped at Penzy's (spice store) who didn't have them but referred me up the street to the Golden Fig Fine Foods.

I've mentioned the Golden Fig before; it's a specialty foods shop on Grand Ave in St. Paul. And sure enough, they had chocolate extract and a few other extracts that might come in handy.

Since owner Laurie McGann Crowell was there that day, we had a little chat about the extract and how it just adds a nice, smooth, subtle chocolate flavor to baked goods.  Plus, it had an expiration date of 2018 so that was in its favor; longer is better.  It's a little pricey compared to other extracts, but I think it was worth it. And of course, it gives me another reason (as if I needed one) to make these brownies again.  Sold!  By the way, you can mail order this item if Laurie's store is not in your neighborhood.  The brand is Nielssen Massey and you can find it online.  Pricewise, Sur La Table is the "best" of the online bunch, coming in at $8.00.  My bottle cost $6.95 and looks like that was a steal; Amazon's price is $14.99 – yikes!

Now I'll warn you that the ingredient list looks long (and hopeless) but it's really not.  If you bake at all, you likely have three-quarters or more of the items you need already on hand.  And I must confess to leaving out the almonds.  Much as I like almonds, I just didn't want them in my brownie.  And since it was going to be my birthday brownie, I got to do what I wanted. 

One other tiny confession:  I did not freeze the brownie layer for a short time period as directed.  Since I made the brownie base the night before, I just wrapped it up and let it set out.  In hindsight, I might have wanted to at least refrigerate it for a bit.  The brownies were a little squishy (but in a good way) and they probably would have benefitted from firming up just a bit.

Finally, these are very rich, so you might want to consider making a half a batch like I did and then cut yourself a tiny piece a day until they are all gone.  And remember, as with the mini meatloaves I made earlier in the week, there are next to no calories in mini bites. 

Birthday or not, you need to make these!

Ann's Note:  you'll notice the author gives you the ounces needed for each ingredient. Since I have a kitchen scale, I weighed most of mine (but not all) but if you don't, you might want to eyeball some of them because 1 cup is not always 8 ounces. For example, notice that 1 cup of sugar = 7 ounces, not 8 but you will use a full cup (8 ounces) for your light brown sugar but not a full cup for your flour (use 4.5 ounces).  Bakers like to weigh things!

Also, page xvii contains her tips for measuring, baking, whisking and whatnot.  If you have the book, you might want to take a look-see.  That said, I have the book and did I look there?  Nope [insert sheepish look here].

Holy Heavenly Hash Brownies – makes 12 large squares or 24 smaller bars

Brownie Batter

Vegetable shortening for pan

2/3 cup (3 ounces) roasted salted whole almonds

½ cup (3 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter

3 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate

1 cup (6 ounces) 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate chips

4 large eggs, room temperature

1 cup (7 ounces) granulated sugar

1 packed cup (8 ounces) light brown sugar

¾ teaspoon salt

1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 cup (4.5 ounces) bleached all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

Chocolate Nougat

4 tablespoons (2 ounces) unsalted butter

1 cup (7 ounces) sugar

¼ cup (2.2. ounces) evaporated milk

7.2 ounces (1 ½ cups) marshmallow creme, such as Fluff

½ cup (3 ounces) 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate chips

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

½ teaspoon pure chocolate extract (Ann's Note:  Naturally, I didn't purchase mine until after I was done with the recipe.  I couldn't find it before then.  If you don't have it, you can leave it out.)

Topping

1 ½ cups (2 ounces) miniature marshmallows

¼ cup (1 ounce) roasted salted whole almonds

2 tablespoons (1 ounce) semisweet chocolate chips

Chocolate drizzle

1 tablespoon (0.05 ounce) unsalted butter

1 teaspoon (0.02 ounce) light corn syrup

¼ cup (1.5 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

1 teaspoon very hot water

To Make the Brownies

To make the brownies, adjust an oven rack to the middle level of the oven and preheat to 350F.  Prepare a 9 by 13-inch baking pan with heavy-duty aluminum foil as shown on page xvi.  Lightly great the foil in the pan.

Cut the almonds in half widthwise and place in a small bowl with the semisweet chocolate chips.  Set aside.

Cut the butter sticks into 1-inch slices.  In a small, heavy saucepan, melt the butter pieces over the lowest setting.  While the butter is melting, chop the unsweetened chocolate into ¼-inch pieces and add to the melted butter along with the bittersweet chocolate chips.  Use a small whisk to speed the melting process.  When the chocolate is melted and completely smooth, turn off the heat but leave the saucepan on the burner while proceeding with the recipe.

Using a large whisk, lightly beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl.  Place the sugars and salt in a separate small mixing bowl, then whisk into the eggs just until incorporated.  Briefly whisk the melted chocolate mixture, then gradually whisk into the egg mixture until just combined.  Briefly whisk in the vanilla.  You can set aside the saucepan – no need to wash it – to use for the chocolate drizzle.

Place the flour and baking powder in the small mixing bowl; whisk together to combine.  Sift through a medium strainer directly onto the batter; stir in with a silicone spatula until just combined.  Sprinkle the almonds and semisweet chocolate chips over the batter; fold in until just combined.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly with a small offset spatula. Bake for 28minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and let cool at room temperature for at least 15 minutes, then transfer the pan to the freezer to chill the slab while preparing the chocolate nougat.

To Make the Chocolate Nougat

Cut the butter into ½-inch thick slices.  Place the butter, sugar, and evaporated milk in a medium (1 ½ to 2-quart) saucepan.  Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally with a silicone spatula, until the butter is melted and the sugar is completely dissolved.  Increase the heat to medium-high and bring the mixture to a boil, then lower the heat to the lowest setting and boil gently for 5 minutes, without stirring.  Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the marshmallow creme until very well incorporated, then add in the chocolate chips, salt, and extracts, stirring vigorously until the mixture is well blended.  Dollop the nougat over the chilled brownie slab and spread evenly with a small offset spatula.

To Add the Toppings

Evenly place the marshmallows over the nougat, gently pressing to slightly embed them.  Cut the almonds in half, then embed them in the nougat; repeat with the chocolate chips.

To Make the Chocolate drizzle

To make the chocolate drizzle, melt the butter and corn syrup over low heat in the reserved saucepan.  Remove the pan from the heat and add the chocolate chips; stir with a small silicone spatula until the chocolate is melted and smooth.  Stir in the hot water to think it out.  Use the spatula to drizzle thin, random stripes over the top of the brownie slab.  Let the slab sit at room temperature for 15 minutes, then refrigerate pan for 7 to 8 hours or overnight.

Can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks.

Ann's Note:  I mentioned above that I did not freeze the brownie slab for the allotted time, nor did I put the mixture in the refrigerator for 7-8 hours.  I mean come on—after all the work of making them, you want me to sit this out for another 8 hours?  Don't think so!

"Egg Cookery" and "Eggs I Have Known" - Ham and Eggs Oven Omelet and Chicken Armagnac (brandy)

Date I made these recipes:  March 27, 2016 – Easter Sunday

Egg Cookery – Omelets, Soufflés, Quiches, Crepes and Other Egg Dishes by Lou Seibert Pappas

Published by:  101 Productions San Francisco

ISBN:  0-912238-80-1; © 1976

Recipe:  Ham and Egg Oven Omelet – p. 69

Eggs I Have Known by Corrine Griffith

Published by:  Farr, Straus and Cudahy

© 1955

Purchased at:  Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks, NYC

Recipe:  Chicken Armagnac – p. 87

It's not that I like to be contrary, but every time a food holiday like Easter rolls around, I eschew ham (or for Thanksgiving, turkey) in favor of something different.  Something...not ham. 

And it's not like I don't like ham but it's difficult to make a ham for two people without generating a ton of leftovers to freeze.  We did that one year and about one year later, we were tossing ice-encrusted bags of ham in the garbage.  I hate wasting food.  (For the record, I have yet to find a refrigerator/freezer combination that doesn't make half the food in it look like it was stored in the North Pole.)

And then there's the age-old issue of having to make sides with the ham and that usually means pulling out several cookbooks (as if the ham recipe hunt isn't challenging enough) and after a few days of that, I just gave up and started looking for that elusive "something different."

"Something different" turned out to be two dishes, each one from a cookbook about eggs.  Easter may be about ham, but it is also about eggs.  I mean you've got your dyed Easter eggs, your chocolate Easter eggs and even your malted milk Easter eggs (my favorite).  So "eggs" it was.

The first cookbook I used, Egg Cookery, is as straight up as you can get.  There's a brief introduction but that's the last we really see of a narrative as all the pages after that are recipes, sans a lot of chit chat.  Instead, you get a wide variety of egg recipes for everything from hors d'Oeufs to entrees.  Me?  I like breakfast and as soon as I saw the recipe for a Ham and Egg Oven Omelet I chuckled because what could be better for Easter than ham and eggs?

[Breaking News:  To my horror, I discovered that I had already cooked from this cookbook for Easter 2012.  Noooooooo! My own self-imposed rule is that I cook only one recipe per book otherwise I'd never get through my collection.  (As if.)  But since I can't store all the cookbooks I've used, it was still on my shelf and so oh well.  Make this anyway because it's easy!]

I might have just stopped with this cookbook but my husband gave me a look suggesting he would not be satisfied with just breakfast, so I kept searching and at long last decided to make something from the cookbook, Eggs I Have Known.  But I tell you what, it wasn't easy because most of the recipes in this book had absolutely nothing to do with eggs.  Go figure.

Still, the title is a crack-up, is it not?  When I first saw this book at Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks in NYC 10 years ago, I just had to have it.  But when I got it home, I was rather disappointed to see traditional egg dishes (omelets, soufflés, etc.) were few and far between.  Instead, this reads like a regular cookbook i.e. with recipes from "soup to nuts" and that was disappointing.

And this is why in the last 10 years, I have done nothing but pick up the book, leaf through it for recipes, and then finding none of interest, put the book back on the shelf.  But this year I was determined to find something, anything, and so I went to the source ("to ask the horse" – Mr. Ed) and made a chicken dish to go with my egg breakfast.  And what do you know, the recipe I selected called for two egg yokes and so just like that, I went full circle on this Easter egg theme and all was well with the world.

So this all seemed like a good idea and so on Easter Saturday, I set off to find the key ingredient to Chicken Armagnac – jarred truffles. (Armagnac is a French brandy.)  And who knew until I set off on this adventure that there is a truffle "season" and unfortunately, Easter wasn't it.  Christmas, yes, Easter no. 

Lucky for me, one of my first stops was to a specialty food store, Golden Fig Fine Foods, located on Grand Ave in St. Paul, MN.  The store's owner, Laurie McCann Crowell, and I met at – of all things – a cookbook book club -  a club that met once a month circa 1998-2000, at the Barnes and Noble bookstore located in the Har Mar Shopping Center in St. Paul.  The store's community events person at the time persuaded local food reporter, Sue Zelickson, to moderate the club and together they brought in budding cookbook authors and chefs like Ina Garten, Lydia Bastianich and even – be still my heart – Alice Waters.

And every month, I plunked myself down to hear the speaker, sample a little something from the featured cookbook made by a local (and usually female) chef, chatted with my fellow cookbook-loving peeps and of course bought the cookbook.  Back then, I think my collection was maybe around 500ish; it now numbers over 2100 books.

The day that Ina Garten, a/k/a The Barefoot Contessa, was our featured speaker was the day I first chatted with Laurie.  Laurie was just getting her own line of foods going and had worked for Ina Garten back in the day when Ina had her own gourmet foods shop, well before she became famous on the Food Network.  Armed with her experience at Ina's, Laurie founded the Golden Fig Fine Foods line and then opened her own shop on Grand Avenue, and when I am in the mood for something different or for a hostess gift, I go to the store.  And I figured if anybody had jarred truffles, it would be her.

It turns out that no, she didn't have jarred truffles as she now tries to focus on Minnesota-made products, but she advised as to where I might look and how I might want to adapt the recipe.  But before we get to that, I have to tell you about what happened before we had that conversation because it was as enlightening as it was amusing.

So Laurie carries a few cookbooks and I started looking through one that I had also glanced briefly (and I mean briefly) at a few days before at Barnes and Noble.  The cookbook, Ina's Kitchen: Memories and Recipes from the Breakfast Queen, was written by Chicagoan Ina Pinkney, not to be confused with Ina Garten.

Just after I started looking at the cookbook, Laurie came up to me and said "That's a great cookbook.  Ina is really fun and the cookbook is great.  She ran a restaurant in Chicago for many years."

"She did?????," said I, somewhat incredulously because I thought she was referring to Ina Garten, not Ida Pinkney.  For the record, until Ina Garten came along, I had never, ever heard of anybody being named "Ina" and now there were two of them?

So Laurie went on chatting about the book and since I had once again barely cracked the thing open, I was most confused.  It was only after the fact that I a) figured out we were not talking about the same "Ina," and b) realized that I had eaten at Ina's Kitchen (now closed) in Chicago.  How do you like that?  My husband and I often visit friends in Chicago 10 years ago (wow, time flies), the four of us went there to eat.  And it was good.  Even better – and you all will love this – was that the restaurant was located near a flea market and it was there that I found one of my Holy Grail cookbooks, one that I had been searching out for years and years:  Vincent and Mary Price's A Treasury of Great Recipes.  Score!  I plunked down a considerable amount of money for the book but honestly, I probably would have paid double, it was that hard to find.  So in a round about way, thank you Ina Pinkney!

Moving on...I told Laurie I would consider the cookbook (and I will, but I had also purchased two new cookbooks that day so the budget was tight) and then I asked her if she carried jarred truffles.

We resume our story, already in progress.

Laurie said no but then suggested a few places to check.  But I had other errands to run and both of them would take me out of my way so instead, we discussed substitutes.  I was thinking of swapping Portobello mushrooms for truffles but Laurie said they weren't the right flavor profile.  Instead, after looking at the photocopy of the recipe I brought with me, she suggested that I use shitake and then suggested that I used dried shitake and then came up with another suggestion that really worked:  grind the dried shitake in a food processor and then add them, as directed, at the last minute.  Worked like a charm.  I need to bring her all my recipes.

As a final note, I bought the dried shitake at Whole Foods but not the Whole Foods closest to her store (and my house) on in St. Paul that we both agreed would be a "zoo" on Saturday, but rather the Whole Foods in downtown Minneapolis.  And although the price sticker on the dried mushroom shelf said $5.99 (as opposed to $18 dollars or more for jarred truffles), they rang up at $3.29.  Awesome!

So now you know and I know (and "Eggs I Have Known" know) that truffles enjoy a very short (and expensive) season and this is good knowledge to have.

You should also know that the Chicken Armagnac is basically chicken + booze +  a mushroom and shallot cream sauce. My guess is that you could leave out the brandy and you would be just fine.

And so it came to pass on Easter Sunday that we got our chicken and egg and ham fix on and it was fabulous.  Enjoy!

Ham and Eggs Oven Omelet – Makes 6 servings

8 eggs

1 cup milk

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ cup julienne-cut cooked ham

2 cups shredded Swiss cheese

¾ cup sourdough French bread cubes

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Beat eggs until blended and mix in milk, salt, nutmeg, ham and cheese.  Pour egg mixture into a buttered ovenproof baking dish about 9-1/2 inches in diameter.  Roll bread crumbs in melted butter to coat and scatter over the top.  Bake in a 350F oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown and puffed.  Serve at once, cut in wedges.

Chicken Armagnac – serves 4

4 breasts of chicken

Salt and pepper

2 egg yolks

1 small jar truffles

4 ounces butter

6 or 8 peeled shallots, grated

6 ounces cream

3 ounces Armagnac brandy

Use only white meat of 4 chickens.  Put in a skillet with 4 ounces of butter to sauté.  Salt and pepper them and turn frequently.  Just as they have finished cooking, put into a skillet shallots peeled and chopped extremely fine.  Remove chicken and place in chafing dish in which there is a little melted butter.

Keep stirring shallots in skillet with butter and chicken juices.  When shallots are cooked, add slowly the yolks of two eggs and six ounces of cream beaten together.  Add truffles.  (Ann's Note:  or, if using dried mushrooms like the Shitake I used, crumble them in a food processor and the add them to the mixture.)  Stir constantly over low fire to blend butter with sauce.  When sauce is thick, set aside.  Pour three ounces of Armagnac over chicken in hot chafing dish.  Set ablaze.  When Armagnac is almost burned out, pour sauce over chicken.  Serve immediately.

Ann's Note:  I made some rice and some peas to accompany the chicken.